Strain-induced nonsymmorphic symmetry breaking and removal of Dirac semimetallic nodal line in an orthoperovskite iridate

By using a combination of heteroepitaxial growth, structure refinement based on synchrotron x-ray diffraction, and first-principles calculations, we show that the symmetry-protected Dirac line nodes in the topological semimetallic perovskite SrIrO sub(3) can be lifted simply by applying epitaxial co...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2016-02, Vol.93 (8), Article 085118
Main Authors: Liu, Jian, Kriegner, D., Horak, L., Puggioni, D., Rayan Serrao, C., Chen, R., Yi, D., Frontera, C., Holy, V., Vishwanath, A., Rondinelli, J. M., Marti, X., Ramesh, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Broken symmetry
Condensed matter
Epitaxial growth
Insulators
Oxides
Symmetry
Synchrotrons
Topology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:By using a combination of heteroepitaxial growth, structure refinement based on synchrotron x-ray diffraction, and first-principles calculations, we show that the symmetry-protected Dirac line nodes in the topological semimetallic perovskite SrIrO sub(3) can be lifted simply by applying epitaxial constraints. In particular, the Dirac gap opens without breaking the Pbnm mirror symmetry. In virtue of a symmetry-breaking analysis, we demonstrate that the original symmetry protection is related to the n-glide operation, which can be selectively broken by different heteroepitaxial structures. This symmetry protection renders the nodal line a nonsymmorphic Dirac semimetallic state. The results highlight the vital role of crystal symmetry in spin-orbit-coupled correlated oxides and provide a foundation for experimental realization of topological insulators in iridate-based heterostructures.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.085118